Enhancing the sales process to Eastern Africa
Perttula, Peter (2020)
Perttula, Peter
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020112424044
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020112424044
Tiivistelmä
This thesis was done as a part of international sales and sales management studies. The employer of the thesis, TAMK EDU Global is a unit of TAMK with the objective of selling Finnish education globally. The objective was to enhance the sales process of the unit to the newly opened Eastern African market. By enhancing the sales process, turnover and profits should increase. The purpose of this research was to find practical solutions to increase the sales of TAMK EDU Global. The thesis aimed to answer the following two research questions. The first one was “how to increase expert sales to the Eastern African market?” The second research question was “what modern sales theories support the efforts of TAMK EDU Global in the Eastern African market?” The theoretical framework is based on theories about strategy and modern sales. For the empirical part, theme interviews were conducted with three Eastern African CEOs with a proven record of success. The process gave TAMK EDU Global and especially the researcher insights and theoretical support to his daily tasks as a customer relationship manager.
The research gave concrete enhancement ideas for the sales process of TAMK EDU Global. As a part of the process, a strategy was needed for the organization and it was created in a coaching way. The research confirmed that the Eastern African market is one of the slowest on the planet and that the existing sales process that the researcher has been following needs to be tailored to suit the mentioned market better. Theories and interviews supported facts such as the market has a big power hierarchy, personal relationships take time to mature and that digital sales and platforms are on the rise in the Eastern African market.
Over all the goals for the research were reached and the thesis paves way for creating a complete sales playbook for TAMK EDU Global. The Covid19 pandemic forced interviews to be online, which made following body language and facial impressions challenging, taking away depth from the interviews. As a development proposal, the researcher proposes interviewing more than three experts for a wider view of experiences and thus more rich research material. The results cannot be taken directly into use in other sales organizations since all organizations and markets are unique. TAMK EDU Global should now proceed in its sales efforts to follow the made strategy and updated sales process to Eastern Africa.
The research gave concrete enhancement ideas for the sales process of TAMK EDU Global. As a part of the process, a strategy was needed for the organization and it was created in a coaching way. The research confirmed that the Eastern African market is one of the slowest on the planet and that the existing sales process that the researcher has been following needs to be tailored to suit the mentioned market better. Theories and interviews supported facts such as the market has a big power hierarchy, personal relationships take time to mature and that digital sales and platforms are on the rise in the Eastern African market.
Over all the goals for the research were reached and the thesis paves way for creating a complete sales playbook for TAMK EDU Global. The Covid19 pandemic forced interviews to be online, which made following body language and facial impressions challenging, taking away depth from the interviews. As a development proposal, the researcher proposes interviewing more than three experts for a wider view of experiences and thus more rich research material. The results cannot be taken directly into use in other sales organizations since all organizations and markets are unique. TAMK EDU Global should now proceed in its sales efforts to follow the made strategy and updated sales process to Eastern Africa.